Tuesday (stupid internet is not working properly… stupid)

Its been a cloudy day today. To others they might say gloomy but in our neck of the woods it’s hopeful and beautiful and refreshing and something we love to see! A sky full of fat rain clouds.

I love my hipstamatic.

It was too cold to play outside today. So the kids didn’t get to really run around properly. So they have been full of beans. So I have been yelling at them to watch out, to not run with pencils to not jump off the back of the couch (or at least watch out that B doesn’t see them and try to copy them) etc etc etc.

So, I have decided to skip bedtime stories and have their lovely nanny do it tonight. Instead I sat and cuddled with them in the living room before the bedtime drama begins. It might not be a huge drama but since they didn’t get much exercise today it maybe. Either way, I’m skipping it.

The whole S and J bed time dynamic was not working (they were still sharing a room) so we hatched a cunning plan worthy of Baldriks praise (only blackadder fans would appreciate that one). Since we don’t have enough room here for each child to sleep alone we decided to put J in B’s room at bed time, since he doesn’t sleep till a full hour and a half after they do, and leave S in their room. I would read a story to J while S read to himself, then read more to S after saying good night to J.

The idea was that J would fall asleep and we would carry her to her bed around the time that B would be getting ready to have his milk and sleep. And it has worked so far! But I didn’t feel I was in the right frame of mind (crazy mama lady today) to deal with any hiccups so I left the bedtime routine to nanny. S already peeked in twice and just heard J pleading her case as to why she is out of bed so I think I made the right choice tonight.

The stupid pregnant mother moment of today was when ‘maghrib’ prayer time came and S and I got up to pray. He is an expert at what we now call ‘speed praying’. So, when we started praying I made sure to slow down and take my time so that he would (hopefully) take his time as well. While I was praying I was thinking ‘he’s slowing down! Great! When I finish I’m going to say “you see, this is how long a prayer should take you. Not the 30 seconds you manage to do it in” He’ll finally understand’.

When I finished the prayer and did the Salam (the final part that ends the prayer) S looked at me and said “Mama, you prayed 4 Rak’aat* instead of 3! You have to do it again”. Serves me right for thinking of how I’m going to show him what a proper prayer is instead of actually focusing on the prayer it’s self.

*Muslims pray 5 times a day. Each prayer consists of a series of actions and prayers called a Rak’a. And each prayer has a certain number of Rak’a’s. The maghrib or evening prayer is 3 and I did 4.

my kids are 2y and 1y..being the full time parent while mommy is being a fulltime student..i believe we are not doing enough reading for them..i am starting to get worried.

mashallah,i dont know if you get any thanks or appreciation for what you are doing,but wallahi you are doing a great job in that,keep it up and inshallah everything will pay off,and inshallah we will follow your lead one day.

my daughter love books,we try to read to her as much as we can,but graduate students life is very stressful some times we only want to rest on the sofa the few hours we have with our kids.

yes,i am not a student yet,but believe me the admission seeking process is as hectic if not worse than graduate life,beside i do all the house chores except for cooking to compensate for the time wifey have to study in,and i go to the gym..and baby sitting,at the end of the day am well done.

we shall resume the bedtime stories inshallah,you encouraged me once againt to do it,i believe its a good time for the kid-parent bonding.

P.S. i dont want you to misunderstand me or think i am being rude,but mentioning your kids names with initials makes me get lost in the middle,for multiple times while i am reading this post,i felt like i am trying to solve an equation of Jx2B=S!!

LOOOOOOL You had me in stitches about the kid’s initials!!! Takhayal I was thinking the same thing, I’m going to have a fourth inshallah and thats a fourth initial which will make it even worse!! I need to come up with proper nicknames for them…
Also, Mashallah! You’re staying at home with your daughter! That is impressive. Allah iwafigak mashallah it is invaluable for a daughter (or a son) to have her father so available. I know its temporary but if you’re willing to do that then I am sure you will be very involved in your childrens upbringing and that is something you should be proud of. Especially in our part of the world. It is not expected and fathers are in no way criticized for not being involved but I think it’s just as important for the father to have an active role in raising his kids as it is for the mother.

Hello from Mama B

Hi! I'm Bessma and this is my little blog. I started it 2010 as a place to think out loud about parenting 3 Arab Muslim children in this day and age. It has since developed into a more informed thinking out loud about parenting 5 Arab Muslim children in this day and age.